It's kinda a broad question. Even your definition of artistic. Lot's of games have strong themes and messages, usually told through story. Do you want games that have distinctive art styles? The last one I played was El shaddai. Pretty neat and "artistic" i guess.

I think a massive amount of indie games are artsy in that they're catering more to a theme, message or specific design or gameplay rather than trying to make a game that sells to the masses. In fact, probably a great deal of the indie games meet some sort of definition of an "artsy" game and they win a lot of awards for it, compared to a "blockbuster" game.

Then there are some AAA titles which are visually breathtaking, stretching the bounds of graphics with amazing attention to detail.

Then you get the ones in between that would be worthy of the "oscar" of the gaming world, games that approach a masterpiece quality so could be compared to "gaming art", in that respect, simply because of how good the overall package is....

To declare that a personal, inner experience gives certainty about the workings of the universe is to assign far too much value to one’s subjective sense of conviction.
I’m not that arrogant.
The brain, marvelous instrument though it is, isn’t infallible. It can misfire, seize or hallucinate, and it can do so in a way that’s utterly indistinguishable from reality to the person experiencing it.

Braid, all of the awards, all of them, should go to it. I love the not so hidden and not so obvious theme that the story is about. Was pretty chilling when I found out.
Bastion, maybe.
Trine 1 and 2.
Limbo

It intentionally drew people in under the premise it would be a generic CoD clone and the story was meant to be- well, that would be spoiling things. Needless to say they took a big risk and decided to make the game about sending a message. It worked... kind of. It's £10 in the Steam sale atm so go grab it.

Originally Posted by Dekadez

Sandbox MMOs are like having sex with a pornstar: Everyone wants it, but when you're getting it, it's suddenly not so awesome anymore.

Nobody said Journey (PS3 only though... sadly) yet, which for me is one of the best artistic game ever made, both in term of experience and graphisms. Other than that Shadow of the Colossus & Ico are some strong titles, and more indie-wise I'd say Limbo & trine 2 (the 1st is slowly becomming outdated but you can try it!).